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Smallville's Allison Mack Excited About Directing Again — and a New Coupling

While fans of Smallvillehave longed to see longtime friends Chloe (Allison Mack) and Clark (Tom Welling) take their friendship to the next level, there's a new relationship coming to light. Oliver (Justin Hartley) and Chloe will develop a spark in the coming episodes, but it's a bond unlike what we've seen between Lois (Erica Durance) and Clark. TVGuide.com spoke with Mack on her second time directing (Friday's episode, "Warrior"), her thoughts on Lois and Clark and much more!

TVGuide.com: Let's start off by discussing this week's episode, "Warrior." Mack: They assign all of the directors numbers ... I was given Episode 13 this year and I was given Episode 13 last year, so apparently 13 is my lucky number because I've ended up with great scripts for both seasons. This one ... I had heard that it was like a little kid in a big body story a few weeks before I actually received the script. I started studying Big, but it wasn't until I actually got the script that I started to understand the real essence of the episode and got really excited about the opportunity to explore it on camera.

TVGuide.com: What kind of relationship are Chloe and Oliver going to have? Mack: Oliver and Chloe are both coming from very similar mindsets and they're very professional. A relationship that develops out of those types of people is never one of softness or romance. It's a really interesting dynamic because both are aware that the most important thing is their mission in the world, not their relationships. They have a very strained and secretive relationship, which is similar to Clark and Lois, but they don't have the softness or the romance that Clark and Lois have. It's very fun, it's very mature and very secretive, strategic and interesting.

TVGuide.com: What are your thoughts on the Smallville fans that want to see Chloe and Clark together? Mack: It's lovely that they're keeping the hope alive. [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: How does Chloe feel about seeing Lois and Clark together? Mack: I don't think she's a very big fan, but I don't think it's coming from a place of jealousy. I think it's coming from a place of practicality. I think that Chloe recognizes, and you'll see this in "Persuasion," that when Clark is distracted, Clark does not do his best work. When Clark is in love is when Clark is distracted. Chloe is very reticent of being supportive of anything that will distract from naturalizing his heroic position in the world. His relationship with Lois is definitely proving to be a distraction just as she expected.

TVGuide.com: Will Clark and Chloe's friendship come together more? Mack: They're working towards the same mission, they have the same ideals, but their journey, their path and their choices to actualize those missions are very different. While they are working together, because they always have and always will need each other, they also, both of them, have projects they're working on the side that don't involve the other, which puts a really interesting divide between the two characters and allows them some great dramatic tension.

TVGuide.com: How will the Justice League now develop or change in the coming episodes? Mack: I think they become a much more deliberate group of superheroes. They have a system and we have a commitment now, all of them do. All of them are actually out and proactively seeking to fight crime and save the world in a way that was a little more haphazard before. With Chloe at the helm of all of them, I think they're a lot more effective and intentional in what it is they're trying to achieve.

TVGuide.com: What's your take on Dr. Fate's statement that he and Chloe share the same path? Could he mean that she's the next Dr. Fate? Mack: We have played around with lots of different things. It could mean she's the next Dr. Fate. It could mean that she will soon be ridiculed and put in the hospital for being insane, like her mother, sort of a throwback to Chloe's fear of adopting her mother's mental illness.

TVGuide.com: What role will Chloe play in investigating Checkmate and Agent Waller (Pam Grier)? Mack: Chloe plays a very proactive role in the relationship between Clark and Amanda Waller, mainly because she's a threat to her league. As part of her duties as Watch Tower, she is very protective of her league and what they represent and stand for. She's very aggressive about trying to figure out who Checkmate is, what it's about and how to stop her.

TVGuide.com: Will being big brother as Watch Tower come back to hurt her eventually? Mack: She's definitely experiencing the challenges of being so aggressive with her pursuit to save, especially in her relationship with Clark. She's also starting to understand what it means to put yourself in the line of fire. So her safety is threatened several times and she's starting to recognize that she's in the big kids league now and there's not really any turning back ... At this point in Chloe's life, she doesn't have a whole lot to lose.

TVGuide.com: What is Chloe's driving force and her mindset as we continue through the season? Mack: I think Chloe is really exploring that question, "Do the ends justify the means?" Because I think Chloe is at a place right now that she sees how bad the world is and sees the need for some really dramatic and drastic decisions. She's struggling to decide whether or not what she needs to sacrifice is worth what she needs to save.